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Last night on CNBC I watched a showed called "Apocalypse 2012". It was all about the believers of the December 21, 2012 Doomsday prophesy. Most of them claimed they had the scientific evidence that in deed this was the what the Maya meant by their long count calendar end date. Then it interviewed different people and what their survival strategy was for this date.
One gentleman was building an underground condo for people to buy. He's spent millions of dollars on this project and it's not finished yet. The thing that I don't understand is the people who are buying these million dollar condos. The craziest thing I have heard so far though is Peter Gertsen's "Leap of Faith 2012". He actually believes that he will jump into another dimension when he jumps off a high cliff in the Arizona desert. He's encouraging others to join him. I find this man to socially irresponsible. He claims he's not responsible for his followers. Which I find such a claim to be so absurd. The only dimension he'll be jumping into when he jumps off a cliff is the dead dimension. I surely do hope that no one follows him and jumps to their deaths. The fact is that no one truly knows and there is no hard cold scientific facts that specifically state what the ending of their calendar meant. The December 21, 2012 date is one that was derived by Mayanist Eric Thompson and he did not use scientific evidence to arrive at that date. Many scientists are beginning to abandon the belief of the December 21, 2012 date. It simply is a miscalculation. The correlation of the end of the Maya long count calendar is determined from three calendar systems: the Maya Long Count Calendar, the Julian Calendar, and the Gregorian Calendar. Many inaccuracies flood both the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian calendar is it is next to impossible to pinpoint an exact Gregorian calendar date. So before you gamble away all your finances, buy a million dollar bunker, or anything else that is unthinkable on any other day, just remember December 22, 2012 will indeed arrive, and humanity will continue on.
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My son had his 13th birthday a few days ago. He was so excited to be 13, I however was not so thrilled. He's my youngest and I'd like to keep them as young as long as possible. It's hard to watch your children grow up and depend on you less and less, although it's quite a nice sense of new freedom.
In our American culture our children live with us as long as we allow. Sometimes this means they move out of the house when they are finished with college and find that first job, where they can live independently. For others they move out right after high school. For the ancient Maya childhood was quite different. By the time the children were 5 years old, they were already helping out with the responsibilities. The boys helped farm and hunt and the girls help cook and clean. It's hard to imagine a 5 year old doing such chores, but for the Maya it was a way of survival. When a Maya child turned 13 it was a pivotal year for them. 13 was considered a sacred number. The Maya children did not experience teenage adolescence. At 13 they were having "puberty ceremonies" and being prepped for marriage. 13 was the beginning stage of becoming an independent member of Maya society. By the age of 15, when our kids are just learning how to drive, an ancient Maya child was considered an adult and expected to provide for themselves and their family if they had one at that age. 13 and 15 seem quite young to us to being such things and having those kinds of expectations for such a young child, but when you consider the grand scheme of things, life expectancy was only 52 years old. And if you lived to 52 that was considered living a very long time. People are always asking me "When are you going to publish book number 2?" It's almost like asking the newly married couple when they are going to have their first baby. At first I just wanted to enjoy my first published book. Which I am doing. I am trying to get carried in bookstores and trying to get booked for tv interviews.
But, alas...I am working on book number 2. It isn't about the Maya so sorry to disappoint all my wonderful Maya followers and fellow Mayanists. Although, future Maya works are not all awash. My friend and Mayanist Carl de Borhegyi is deciphering and interpreting pieces of Maya artwork and other closely related ancient art, that is ground breaking. I will continue to share his findings here on my blog. In the meantime, however, the new piece I'm working on is fiction. It would fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller category. So far I've written around 10,000 words. I attended my first Aikido class in the name of research and will be attending a few more. Thank you to Cory & Faith at the Kyoshin Aikido Dojo for letting me be an observer. I do hope to get to try out a few of the moves so I can truly describe the feeling of it to my readers. The following photo and excerpt is from my friend Carl de Borhegyi, a leading Maya expert in Minnesota. See his website for more info on Maya art decipherment at www.mushroomstone.com I really do however like the idea of ancient girl power.  The famous bronze statue on the left, of a young women sporting a club-like hand, is from Harappa, early Indus civilization. The figurine is thought to be about 4,500 years old. The standing female figurine on the right, represents a ballplayer from ancient Mexico wearing a protective helmet, ballgame glove and a mushroom-inspired ballgame belt. The figurine comes from the site of Xochipala, Mexico, in the western state of Guerrero, and dates to 1200-900 B.C.E It is now in the Princeton University Art Museum.
In Mesoamerica I believe a ritual beverage made from juice expressed from the Amanita muscaria mushroom (Soma) was probably consumed before battle and before the ritual ballgame, to journey into the Underworld, and to enhance one's bravery, and strength to its wildest levels. Numerous ballplayer figurines have been found at Xochipala and at such other Preclassic sites as Tlatilco and Tlapacoya in the Valley of Mexico. Stephan de Borhegyi conjectured that a change in ballgame rituals and a switch from the Olmec influenced "hand ball game" most likely came as a result of the powerful influence of Teotihuacan and newly instituted Quetzalcoatl rites. (Borhegyi 1980: p. 24). For more on ballgame hand stones and ballgame gloves see Borhegyi, 1961: 129-140. (photograph of Xochipala ballplayer from Whittington, 2001) by Carl de Borhegyi Waking up at 5 am isn't normal routine for me, but it certainly does shake things up. And it was well worth it. I got to see the sunrise and see Lake Minnetonka which I haven't seen in quite a while. Just a gentle reminder of why I moved to Minnesota so many years ago. I beat all the morning rush hour traffic, which was nice, and it didn't take me very long to get there. On my way home it took me twice as long on the drive, which reminds me why I do not like I-494 during rush hour.
I presented to the morning Rotary Club of Lake Minnetonka for the city of Excelsior at Maynards in Excelsior. It's a great place. Great food and ambiance. It sits right on one of the bays of Lake Minnetonka. My presentation was well received and the members of the club were so very nice and welcoming as with the other Rotary Clubs. So far presenting for the local Rotary Clubs has been a great experience and the members are so nice and welcoming. Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking and presenting "Unlocking The Mysteries Of The Ancient Maya" , which is based on my book, to the Bloomington, MN Noon Rotary Club. My presentation was filmed by Bloomington Access Channel TV and will be airing sometime soon on their channel.
After the presentation was over there was time for some Q&A, and then I was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation and the Rotary Club made a donation in my name to the End Polio Now Fountation. Tomorrow I am presenting to the Lake Minnetonka/Lake Excelsior Rotary Club. Looking forward to it. I' have a little over 500 Twitter Followers! Twitter is a great place for self promotion. There are lots of authors, musicians, PR people, agents, artists, business men & women all on Twitter. It's a great place for business social connections.
This weekend I was explaining the difference between Twitter and Facebook to my internet socially inept friends. Twitter= Self promotion blurbs to lots of people you've never met before. Facebook = Broadcast news to people you know. As an independent author I really do love the fact that social media is there for me. Maya cities still lie undiscovered in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Recently archeologists have uncovered some new cities in the Yucatan. These cities were discovered as a result of modernization. The commission of building new roads has unearthed the discovery of these new Maya cities. The discovery of these cities shows that the Yucatan was more of a major hub for the ancient Maya. They have found stucco art on the sides of some of the buildings that shows the cult of Queztalcoatl was also present.
Meeteetse, WY isn't your typical town in the USA. It's a town with a population of less than 500 people and going there is like taking a big leap in time. A big leap backwards in time. Life there isn't ordinary. It's the west pure and simple.
My grandmother who is about to turn 104 years old lives there and I consider it my home away from home. My mother also lives there about 99% of the time. Using their connections, I am officially being carried in a bookstore. The first bookstore to carry my title and I couldn't be happier about that. I'm so thankful for their support. Venus and Jupiter are shining brightly in the night sky side by side. Venus is the brighter shining planet to the right and Jupiter is to the left of Venus. The Maya watched Venus and Jupiter closely. Venus was revered by the Maya more than any other celestial body. They built buildings in honor of it, made sacrifices in honor it, and even went to war by it. It was part of their daily lives.
To learn more about the importance of Venus to the Maya make sure and order a copy of my book. And don't forget to look for Venus in the night sky. |
AuthorBonnie Bley is an Award Winning Author. She is a native of Wyoming, spent her formative years in the border reservation town of Hardin, MT, situated in the southeastern corner of Montana. Her educational journey took her to Aberdeen, SD, and Bloomington, MN, where she honed her skills and knowledge. In the late Archives
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